Saudi Arabia arrests judge, officials in $134m corruption case
Saudi Arabia's Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) has arrested several government employees including a judge, for alleged involvement in corruption, an official source at the authority said, the Saudi Gazette reports.
In a statement, Nazaha said in cooperation with the Ministry
of Interior, the Public Prosecution, the Presidency of State Security, and the
Saudi Central Bank, three bank employees and 11 residents, were arrested for
establishing commercial entities in the names of their relatives, opening bank
accounts managed by the residents and depositing 505,725,336 riyals ($134.86
million) in illegal money and transferred them abroad while obtaining a
percentage of those amounts in exchange for facilitating the deposit
procedures.
It added that they admitted to using bank accounts of
"more than 40 commercial entities to deposit funds and transfer them
abroad."
The judge who was detained in the case is accused of
accepting a bribe to rule in a commercial dispute. The commission also arrested
a notary public and a faculty member at a university.
These arrests come within the framework of eight cases
initiated by the Integrity Commission.
Last March, at least 241 people, including employees of
several ministries, were arrested for their alleged involvement in corruption.
Last January, 32 people were also arrested following an
investigation into the illegal transfer of $3.1 billion out of the country.
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